Homes, Roads Flood in Lackawanna County

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COVINGTON TOWNSHIP -- Parts of our area are still recovering from flash flooding Saturday afternoon caused by heavy rains.

The Moscow area in Lackawanna County saw more than three inches of rain in just a few hours.

"This is the worst I’ve ever seen," said Tom Garubba.

Garubba isn't used to having a waterfall in his backyard near Moscow, let alone a river ripping through his yard.

"It started coming down again and I couldn't keep up with it."

So with the help of his son, Garruba spent the entire day using anything he could find--from old garage doors to picnic tables--all to help guide the water away from his home and into the creek.

"We would've lost a lot more than we lost. I think we would've lost the whole basement, the furnace, the water heater, the electrical panels, everything. Just trying to keep up with it and save property. It worked. We got on top of it," Garruba added.

Neighbors describe this creek as quiet and only about eight inches deep--usually. It was not so quiet or shallow after all that rain.

J.R. Janiszewski is one of the lucky ones. The flood water flows right by his house where the creek banks can handle it. Albeit a much bigger, louder and faster creek.

"Torrential downpours and water coming all over. I was up there before, water coming up over the hill. It's pretty bad," Janiszewski said.

It was so bad that the torrential rains caused mudslides covering part of Center Street in the Moscow area. It was one more instance of how much rain fell in this area in such a short amount of time.